OUR SAY: Snyder's transparency message lost in recent actions

Michiganís governor was all about transparency when he took office. How does signing legislation which hides the identity of campaign contributors promote transparency?

The law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder last month was wide-ranging.

It doubled contribution limits which had been frozen for more than 30 years. An individual henceforth can contribute up to $6,800 to a candidate for statewide office in an election cycle, up to $2,000 for a candidate for house and senate. And independent political action committees, the PACs, can donate up to 10 times those limits, up to $68,000 for a candidate for governor or other statewide office. The limits will be indexed to inflation.

The new law also requires candidate committees to post new campaign finance reports in non-election years.

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All sound like reasonable changes.

So does another requirement: Groups which run ads or place robocalls supporting an issue but not seeking a vote for or against a candidate must include a statement identifying the person or group authorizing the ad or call.

But they wonít be required to identify those who contributed money for the advertising.

That was a late change. It occurred after Secretary of State Ruth Johnson proposed an administrative rule to require disclosing the identity of donors for candidate ads placed within 30 days of a primary, 60 days before a general election.

The legislative change blocks her proposal.

Supporters said itís important to preserve free speech for all who take positions on issues, and to preserve freedom of association for people who might contribute to a group without agreeing on every ad placed by the group.

In other words, a contributor might be vilified by opponents if the personís name is attached to an ad.

Itís of interest, of course, that Snyder has attacked in issue ads in 2010 and criticized the same lack of transparency.

Weíd have thought that free speech is the freedom to speak your mind and accept the consequences. Snyderís epiphany, it seems, substitutes free whisper for free speech.